Moving the Mails: The Tortoise Express
Stupp, Herbert W.
fiscal years, and wonder ff more could not" have been done to thwart the blanbcheck artists on Capitol Hill. Nor, from a purely partisan perspective, can one refrain from speculating that a more...
...Solomon's case for occasional attention from the networks and the great national newspapers...
...My own mail consciousness has been raised by two particular attempts m communicate with me via the Postal Service...
...Even the potential of such a weighty legal occurrence ought to qualify Mr...
...But consider bureaucratic indolence...
...And iasked what his normal procedure would be, were Mr...
...In his final argument, Marzulla exculpated seven of the defendants of any negligence, leaving the San Jose postmaster and assistant postmaster, William Lawrence and Wilmer Bennett, as the sole respondents to the suit...
...Solomon to catl and complai~ about tardy delivery of his mailing, Mr...
...The trial itself was Hollywood stuff...
...When asked- by the Judge why no "delayed mall report-" was fded, or whyhe didn't attempt to isolatethe*~ responsible for the negfigeeee, Mr...
...24 The Alternative: AnAmerican Spectator March 1977 CLDF, Len Theberge, stressed that the Solomon case had "very significant implications" which could "...hold public employees to the same degree of liability as private employees...
...Written by Hal David and Butt Bacharach...
...Most of these cases were brought in the...
...Postmaster General in the early 1960s, has filed a suit on behalf of the Association of Third Class Mail Users challenging the constitutionalit,/ of the Postal Service's monopoly of third-class mail...
...District Judge Robert Schnocke, upon heating Mar'caHa's" argument in court, ruled that individuals employed by the federal government did not have unlimited immunity from suit while executing "'non-discretionary" duties of their Herbert ~V...
...Solomon and Marzulla had staged auditions for the consummate federal bureaucrat m cast as defendant (read: "'heavy") for maximum benefit in their crusade, they would have been hard pressed m improve on William Lawrence, the San Jose postmaster and one of nine original defendants in the suit...
...When I asked William Lawrence for comment on the decision, he told me smugly, "The Federal judge's ruling is rather complete...
...employment...
...The Court concurred with virtually all of Solomon's legal contentionsmthat he had lost $20,000 to $30,000, that the San Jose post office had failed to deliver promptly some 8,000 pieces (and failed altogether to deliver 2,000)--but nevertheless ruled that postal employees were immune from legal liability...
...Herbert IV...
...And yet there are developments to cheer the hearts of those who long to see the federal monopoly over the mails felled...
...The plot is scarcely worth recounting, inasmuch as the movie has been made several times before, and any veteran of a boxing saga will know from the opening minute what will transpire...
...But Solomon and MarzuUa remain undaunted...
...His attorney, ROger Marzulta, posits that there is no legal impediment to prosecuting individual postal workers for damages arising from their action or imtttitm...
...Solomon's shop, Sportique, depends on a mailing list that is regularly serviced to attract about 85% of its business...
...The Harder They Fall (novel by Budd Schulberg, movie with Humphrey The Alternative: An American Spectator March 1977 25...
...The sheer cost of postage has stampeded people into circumventing the federal mails...
...It is true that success is often assured by presentation of the familiar, but the boxing rut is going a bit too far...
...So whee-)m~aak timm, they will deny they were there...
...But if her question were directed in 1977 to the United States Postal Service--even its San Jose office-the answer would have to be no...
...And new twists there could be...
...and Jack Music, publishers...
...If the succession of events seems familiar, and the moral reminiscent, that is because it is, but it has not been seen in the theatres for some years, and a new generation of moviegoers needs to be reminded that in this most evanescent art form there are a few bedrock verities...
...Rocky defeat in their craggy faces, loyal girl friends, cynical sports reporters...
...We want to have available to us the alternative of using private carriers," he unashamedly told an interviewer in October...
...Worse, the same images recur, the same stories, the same characters, in many instances the same lines and scenes...
...Solomon called me and complained about such a _9 "Do You Know the Way to San Jose...
...Nor, from a purely partisan perspective, can one refrain from speculating that a more effective campaign than Mr...
...The Narragansett Electric Company of Providence, Rhode Island, for example, initiated hand delivery of bills to about a quarter of its 250,000 subscribers...
...This sort of experience has won countless converts to the Eleventh Commandment of doing business in New York, "The check is in the mail," without which the town might collapse...
...Copyright 1968...
...This is capped by a freeze-framed ringside hug from his girl friend: "I love you, Rocky...
...m l t I THE TALKIES by Philip Temian Why is boxing the habitual allegory of third-rate minds...
...An organization based in Washington, the Citizens Legal Defense Fund, has begun to aid the appeal," and has provided $2,000 thus far...
...They have filed an appeal in the Ninth IYmtrict of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, and they intend to carry their legal action as far as their resources and jurisprudence will allow them...
...Such, in sum, is the plight of California clothing retailer Mel Solomon...
...The messengers are Narragansett employees who would have been laid off, but for this ingenuity...
...Blue Seas Music, Inc...
...Most boxers are poor boys suddenly thrust into the limelight, surrounded by leeches and torn by conflicting emotions and allegiances...
...The Judge laughed...
...A script begins to take shape just by listing the ingredients, and Hollywood (or, in the case of Rocky, Philadelphia) has been like a moth hovering around a flame...
...There should be an embargo on Rocky-like productions until a new twist has been concocted...
...Clever cross-examination by Roger Marzulla enabled the plaintiff to focus his legal attack, after trial evidence pointed toward the negligence being insulated within the San Jose Main Post Office...
...For that, Mr...
...Since 1971, when the independent Postal Service was duly constituted, first-class rates have escalated from 6 cents to 13 cents per ounce...
...J . Edward Day, who was U.S...
...I think occasionally of the paintings of George Bellows, where through the smoky haze the faces of the spectators are often as grotesque as the contorted pulps of the boxers...
...Sdlomon determined that the bungled postal delivery had lost him well over $20,000 in profits...
...Currently, the organization wolfs down a lump sum appropriation of $1.6 billion, and President Carter is expected to make good on a campaign pledge to make the Postmaster General's post a political appointment once again...
...Its symbolism is painfully obvious: if you wish to speak knowingly of the "ultimate game," an enterprise that sees two men hitting one another for money surely fills the bill...
...Another, along with a check, took six months from Ithaca, New York...
...Rocky is an aimless South Philadelphia mug, the "Italian Stallion," who through a series of tortured coincidences find himself in the ring with a Muhammad All-type, fighting for the heavyweight title...
...And for that contrived pathos that so frequently passes for film drama, fistic images have proved usually irresistible...
...In handling third.class flyers announcing an annual summer sale, the Postal Service delivered between 8,000 and 10,000 of Mel's mailers too late or not at all...
...What is discouraging is that, while there is a limit to the dramatic uses of boxing, most of them have never been explored...
...Solomon's first impulse was to sue the Postal Se~ice for damages, but he was hatred from so doing by the provisions for sovereign immunity of the government in the Federal Code...
...Lawrence's arrogance quotient is high, even comidering his chosen field...
...Ford's would have retained the White House for his party...
...U.S...
...Lawrence countered with: "If Mr...
...Stupp is an editorial writer for IVOR radto and television in New York...
...20036...
...If Messrs...
...After four days, the trial concluded...
...Do you know the way m San Jose...
...Carter may consider himself fortunate if, when the time comes, he does as well...
...The Judge ruled that individuals who are employed by the Postal Service are part of its organic whole, and are hence not liable to litigation incurred by their work habits, unless negligence can be linked directly to them...
...It appears that the Solomon case could indeed set a precedent extending liability for federal employees in executing or neglecting their duties...
...Boxing as an institution is populated by lively stereotypes--gangsters, street-wise hangers-on, philosophical trainers with the scars of Philip Terzian is on the staff of the New Republic...
...Ford deserves our thanks and our best wishes as he assumes the venerable and honored role of a respected former President and elder statesman...
...Stupp Moving the Mails: The Tortoise Express Neither snow nor rain nor gloom o f night shall stay these couriers from their appointed rounds...
...Which goes to prove that given time, even a former Postmaster General can become as wise as Solomon...
...I love you...
...It has occupied them from Budd Schulberg through Norman Mailer, and of course has been a staple of the movies from James Cagney to Marion Brando to the current practitioner of the art, Sylvester Stallone, a flashy newcomer from whom I hope not to hear much in the future...
...But whatever the final historical judgment on Gerald Ford may be in these and other areas, I'believe it is enough for the present that we note our gratitude to him for restoring a measure 6t peace and quiet to our land, a measure of calm to our public affairs, and a full measure of dignity and respi:ct to our highest office...
...Indeed, there are atleast fifteen precedents m American and British law whereby postmasters were held liable for heedless supervision...
...One letter took a year to reach me in New York, having been mailed in Washington...
...19th century...
...But after scattered reports around the country, the case has been neglected...
...A spokesman for the "Donations specified for the Mel Solomon suit are being funneled through the Citizens Legal Defense Fund, 2121 P Street, N.W., Washington, D.C...
...thing, I would tell him, 'I do not believe you.' Then, I will look into it...
...Considering the events of the last decade, that in itself is an accomplishment: Mr...
...So Mr...
...Solomon decided on another course of action--bringing suit against the indim'dtuds he ascertained as responsible for his loss...
...Alas, Sylvester Stallone drew too close...
...The case was then transferred m a Judge Harris for trial...
...We have witnessed yet again the smooth workings of our constitutional order...
...Fade out...
...The tribulations of the long-suffering Mel Solomon are exceptional, but not entirely unique...
...was Dionne Warwick's dulcet question back in the summer of 1968...
...Lawrence replied: "'Because, well, emplm/ees, your Honor, when if gets down to 'did you,' are not aittttt to adm~-that they knew that 2,000 piect~ were butie~ under something...
...Plotting out prior performances of Sportique's summer sales, Mr...
...He loses, but not until going the distance, a notable achievement, and proving to everyone, but most important to himself, that he really is somebody, that not only he coulda been a contender, but in fact was...
...Solomon has spent $7,000 of his own funds on the suit...
Vol. 10 • March 1977 • No. 6
